With 805 million people in the world undernourished; more than two billion people suffering from micronutrient deficiencies; and one in five children stunted, global health and development goals cannot be attained without addressing the magnitude of hunger and malnutrition. To achieve this, a large number of interlinked and interconnected interventions are needed across multiple sectors, especially relating to agriculture and health.

Over the past 50 years, millions of Indians were lifted out of poverty as a result of India’s leadership in innovating products, processes, and services in agriculture. These agricultural innovations offer great potential for broader replication to address nutrition challenges globally in comparable biophysical and socio-economic conditions.

Grand Challenges in Agriculture for Nutrition (GC-AgN) is an initiative of IKP Knowledge Park (IKP) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to adapt Indian innovations in the agri-food sector in developing countries in Africa and South Asia with an aim to impact the nutrition status of undernourished and malnourished populations in those countries.

It is part of the global Feed the Future (FtF) initiative (https://www.feedthefuture.gov/) of USAID. As part of this initiative, IKP will crowd-source tested Indian technologies, business models, best practices, and knowledge innovations and solutions in the agri-food sector around well-defined priority questions addressing persistent problems in delivering nutrition, for implementation and adaptation in identified developing countries in Africa and South Asia. Innovative projects that have been piloted or field tested in India and having potential for adaptation in other developing countries will be identified through two (2) open Call for Proposals, funded, monitored and nurtured over a three-year period through this program.